THE SNP’s Westminster leader clashed with a Tory MSP after she questioned why the Scottish Government wanted to bring in safe consumption rooms.
It comes after the latest statistics revealed that 1051 people died from a drug-related death in Scotland in 2021.
It marked a fall from the 1330 record in 2021 but still remains 15 times the EU average, according to the Transform Drug Policy Foundation.
The Scottish Government has long been in favour of safe consumption rooms - a space where people who inject drugs do so in a safe environment under supervision.
Earlier this year, drugs minister Elena Whitham called for decriminalisation of substances for personal use and for powers to do so to be devolved.
The policy was almost immediately rejected by Westminster and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, as the issue is reserved and under the control of the Home Office.
Speaking on Radio 4’s Any Questions, Flynn (below) said he believed there was a cross-party “willingness” to solve the issue.
“There are ultimately areas of difference though," he added.
"Perhaps those differences are best sought when we think about drugs and the fact they should be looked at as a health matter rather than as a criminal justice matter.
“I think that’s a fundamental shift that needs to take place in society.
"We also need to have an acceptance from Westminster that you can’t seek to continue to do the same things over and over again and resolve the problem.
“In that regard, I’m talking about safe consumption rooms. Why is it that we don’t have safe consumption rooms in Scotland? It’s because Westminster will not enable us to do so. That’s’ utterly absurd.”
He added that he “genuinely hoped” Scotland could move to a better place but that this was about individual people rather than politics.
Responding to Flynn, Tory MSP Rachael Hamilton said she couldn’t understand why Scotland wanted safe consumption rooms when the number of drug deaths remained so high.
Flynn interjected: “I think the clue’s in the title”, which was met with applause from the audience.
Hamilton said that there were a number of other routes the SNP could take to solve the problem, including decriminalisation.
In response to Flynn, campaigner Peter Krykant said: "Hard agree with @StephenFlynnSNP on the need for safe consumption rooms, this has cross party support in Scotland across the Holyrood chamber and we're braced for more dangerous drugs with synthetics, they can be 100s of times stronger than heroin so they are desperately needed."
